Asteroid 2012 TC4 is slightly larger than the space rock that hit Earth’s atmosphere near Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013.

But it has not been seen since its 2012 discovery when it sped past Earth at about one-fourth the distance from Earth to the moon.

The deceptive Near Earth Asteroid (NEO) has been too distant and too faint to be detected over the last five years.

But now, as it approaches Earth this summer, large telescopes will be used to detect it and re-establish the asteroid’s precise trajectory.

The new observations are expected to figure out exactly how far it will be from Earth at its closest approach in October.

Nasa

Asteroid 2012 TC4 will come in at around 4,000 miles from Earth and will orbit our planet as seen in this Nasa model

"This is the perfect target for such an exercise because while we know the orbit of 2012 TC4 well enough to be absolutely certain it will not impact Earth, we haven’t established its exact path just yet,” said Nasa expert Paul Chodas.

“It will be incumbent upon the observatories to get a fix on the asteroid as it approaches, and work together to obtain follow-up observations than make more refined asteroid orbit determinations possible."

Award winning video shows what would happen if an asteroid struck Earth

The US space agency's Planetary Defense Coordination Office is responsible for finding, tracking and characterising potentially hazardous asteroids and comets coming near Earth, issuing warnings about possible impacts, and assisting coordination of US government response planning, should there be an actual impact threat.

It is launching a Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) in October 2022.

Barcroft Media

An asteroid impact could wipe humanity off the face of planet Earth

What would happen if an asteroid struck Earth?

When an asteroid crashes into the Earth, it’s known as a meteorite – and it can cause potentially huge damage, depending on the size.